After dominating women’s professional golf in the U.S. collectively in recent years, South Korea finally has an individual champion.

Park In-bee picked up the Ladies Professional Golf Association Player of the Year award on Friday at a gala in Florida following the final tournament of the year. She became the first South Korean to claim the LPGA’s highest seasonal honor, joining such luminaries as Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa of Mexico.

Despite a late season dip in form, Park said her Zen-like temperament enabled her to hold off a surge from Norway’s Suzann Petersen. A fourth-place finish at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational tournament earlier this month secured the player known as the “Silent Assassin” enough points to be assured of the title.

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“Who is the Silent Assassin? Someone who believes in finding happiness,” Park said, according to LPGA.com. “As soon as happiness became my goal, I had my best season ever.”

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Park In-bee poses with the Player of the Year trophy in Naples, Florida, Nov. 22.

It had looked like Park would run away with the Player of the Year competition, which awards points for finishes in the top 10 of tournaments. The 25-year-old won the first three major championships of the season, the first player in the modern game to do so. But in the latter half of the year, her form dropped and her lead was whittled away by the hard-charging Petersen.

In the end, the Norwegian ran out of tournaments to win enough points to catch Park, who won six tournaments in total and finished top of the money earning list for the second year in a row.

In a nod to her up-and-down performances, Park said she still has to work on her game ahead of the new season.

“There is definitely room to improve for next year,” she said at a press conference. “I think I am going to be a little bit more used to it [the pressure] and a little bit more mature.”

For South Korea overall, it was another good year on the tour. Four other Koreans featured in the top 10 of the Player of the Year race and Korean players picked up 10 tournament victories in total, two better than last year.

Among the other Korean winners, there was a first LPGA tour victory for Amy Yang, while Park Hee-young tied the LPGA Tour record for the lowest 72-hole score at 26-under in winning the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic.